ing ice, being was, howbusi CHRONICLE fs, the Lord Mayor and degree. The metega een equalled during the pre- without a 1. On the e east corner of the CustomHouse, and the game was played s, by great numbers all day. There were also two fires on the ice, and persons with beer, liquor, and other refreshments, which brought to the recollection of many the celebrated frost fair on the Thames, during the severe winter of 1814. Lon ern en - dock at the Thames e were passing n one shore to the all day; but, strange om that point to the entrance of the Londonthe middle of the stream was free from ice, both sides being covered. From the London-dock pier, however, immense fields of ice were seen as far below as the eye could reach; and embedded in them were several barges, and boats, and steam-vessels. 26. FIRE AT GOTHA.-On the 26th, a fire occurred at the PetitChateau of Gotha; by which the suite ofapartments, lately fitted up, with much taste and magnificence by Duke Alexander of Wurtemburg, for the reception of his bride, the Princess Marie d'Orleans, was almost entirely destroyed. The duchess was in her bed-room with one of her attendants, when the curtains of her bed caught fire. She made an attempt to extinguish it, but, as they were of muslin, they blazed up with such force, that the drapery above, which was of the same material, was instantly involved, and in a few seconds more, the whole chamber was on fire. The princess had scarcely time to make her escape. The cold was so intense, that all the reservoirs were frozen, and no water could be obtained. The whole of the furniture of their royal highnesses was destroyed, There was a complete "block" at Blackwall. The ice extended half over the river, and all the vessels, boats, and barges were frozen in. No steamers came in or went out of the river on the 20th, and it appears that the various reaches below Greenwich were as full of ice as the upper and lower pools. Even at Gravesend the business was suspended. About noon, on the 21st, the wind veered towards the southward, and indications of thaw were perceptible. the sea. although the weather had not moderated. The vessel got as far as Youghall; when one of the pipes of the engine became choked; the engine-room was filled with water, and the fire put out. The captain set sails, but they were shivered in the gale; and the vessel drifted at the mercy of the waves, till she struck, on Saturday night, the 20th, upon a rock called the Rennies, to the westward of Robert's Cove. This rock was in the centre of a bay, the jutting promontories of which are perhaps a mile apart. It is about 200 yards from the cliff (there is no beach)and the cliff, which is quite perpendicular, is about 300 yards above About twenty persons got upon the rock: where they all remained till Sunday morning, except a young man of the name of Foster, who slipped from the rock, and a Mrs. Law, who was washed off, her husband having previously been drowned upon the wreck of the vessel. On Sunday morning, great efforts were made to rescue the persons on the rock; and a rope was passed from one headland to another, till it could be thrown on the rock. Unfortunately, two men got upon the rope together, when it broke, and the poor fellows were drowned. There was no time to procure better apparatus, and the passengers were obliged to spend another night in their dreary quarters. Five of the number died during the night from cold and hunger, and one man, a seaman, was drowned in endeavouring to swim ashore. Next day those who remained were taken off by means of a rope and a basket. There was not a vestige of the vessel left; twentyfive persons went down in her. The inquiry into the cause of the wreck of the Killarney steamer terminated on Friday evening last; when the jury found, that the deceased Morrisson, on whose body the inquest was held, was drowned in the Killarney wreck, on Saturday, the 20th ult. They also find, that George Bailey, the master, did his utmost to save the lives of the passengers and the vessel, except inasmuch as he did not go below to the engine-room to see what stopped the engines. They also find, that the great number of pigs in the vessel accelerated her destruction; and they recommend that an application should be made to the proper authorities for some salutary regulations in the future navigation of steamers on this coast, and that life-boats, and such means, should be resorted to for the preservation of life, &c. - SUFFOCATION.-On the night of the 20th, the cook (a man) and four stable-boys, all servants of General Wyndham, at Sladeland in Sussex, were suffocated by the fumes of a charcoal fire, which they left burning in their room when they went to bed. 21. STATE OF THE RIVER THAMES.-The Thames was, on Saturday and Sunday, the 20th and 21st, completely blocked, the navigation was stopped in tolo, and a spectacle which has not presented itself for many years was observed. Several men passed over the ice in safety from one shore to the other, below bridge, and during the whole of the day there was a regular communication between the vessels lying in the middle of the river off the Tower, and the shore over the ice. The river between Westminster and Vauxhall Bridges, was nearly one sheet of ice; a very narrow channel, which was covered with large masses of floating ice, being still open. Navigation was, however, quite impossible., and business at the whole of the wharfs, along both shores, at a stand-still. Above Vauxhall-bridge, to beyond Battersea bridge, there was scarcely any motion perceptible in the ice in the centre of the river, and towards the banks the ice was of considerable thickness. Above Hammersmith - bridge the river was completely frozen over; and near the water-works of the West Middlesex Company, on the Middlesex shore, several persons ventured across. There was a block on both sides, with few intervals, between London-bridge and the eastern entrance of the London dock at Shadwell. Opposite the Thames Police-office, people were passing right across from one shore to the other nearly all day; but, strange to say, from that point to the lower entrance of the Londondock, the middle of the stream was free from ice, both sides being covered. From the London-dock pier, however, immense fields of ice were seen as far below as the eye could reach; and embedded in them were several barges, and boats, and steam-vessels. On the 22d, the thermometer at the receiving - house, HydePark, rose as high as 47 degrees, with a south-easterly wind. A rapid thaw commenced, which was, however, suspended as night advanced, and, in the course of the week, the frost returned with nearly an equal degree of intensity as before. On Thursday, the 25th, a sheep was roasted whole on the ice, near the centre of the river, near the Suspension Bridge, Hammersmith.--Three skittle-grounds were formed on the ice, opposite the east corner of the CustomHouse, and the game was played by great numbers all day. There were also two fires on the ice, and persons with beer, liquor, and other refreshments, which brought to the recollection of many the celebrated frost fair on the Thames, during the severe winter of 1814. 26. FIRE AT GOTHA.-On the 26th, a fire occurred at the PetitChateau of Gotha; by which the suite of apartments, lately fitted up, with much taste and magnificence by Duke Alexander of Wurtemburg, for the reception of his bride, the Princess Marie d'Orleans, was almost entirely destroyed. The duchess was in her bed-room with one of her attendants, when the curtains of her bed caught fire. She made an attempt to extinguish it, but, as they were of muslin, they blazed up with such force, that the drapery above, which was of the same material, was instantly involved, and in a few seconds more, the whole chamber was on fire. The princess had scarcely time to make her escape. The cold was so intense, that all About noon, on the 21st, the the reservoirs were frozen, and no wind veered towards the south-water could be obtained. The ward, and indications of thaw whole of the furniture of their were perceptible. royal highnesses was destroyed, There was a complete "block" at Blackwall. The ice extended half over the river, and all the vessels, boats, and barges were frozen in. No steamers came in or went out of the river on the 20th, and it appears that the various reaches below Greenwich were as full of ice as the upper and lower pools. Even at Gravesend the business was suspended. and nothing left but the bare and blackened walls; the furniture, tapestry, hangings, glasses, and the whole of the rich trousseau of the duchess, had perished. Her royal highness had also to regret the loss of many invaluable memorials of her youth and her native country. Her family portraits her albums, her collection of letters, as well as the paintings, and small statues and groups, which were the work of her own hands, all were devoured by the flames. 31. BIGAMY. In the New Court, Arthur Battersby, who had lately gone by the name of Henry Napier Disney, the son of a gentleman of good family in Dublin, was tried on a charge of bigamy. It appeared that after his first marriage to a Miss Muckleston, in 1826, the prisoner went to India as a private soldier: he returned in time to join the British Legion in Spain, when his gallantry procured him a lieutenant's commission. Subsequently, he had married a Miss Stovin, a lady of fortune, his first wife being still alive. In his defence, Mr. Charles Phillips cited a statute of James the First, which enacted, that when married persons had been absent from each other for seven years, without hearing that either were alive, another marriage would not render either party liable to punishment for bigamy. The main question in the case before the Court was, whether it was incumbent on the prosecutor to prove that the prisoner was aware that his first wife was alive. The only evidence to prove this was given by Abraham Newland, a fellow who admitted that he had endea voured to extort money from the prisoner for withholding his evi dence. The Common Sergeant consulted with the judges in the other courts, and then decided, that satisfactory proof should be given by the prosecutor, that the prisoner knew his first wife to be alive at the time of his second marriage. The jury, nevertheless, found the prisoner "guilty." He was sentenced to be transported. FEBRUARY. 6. CHANGE OF WEATHER.-A rapid thaw commenced in the night which soon cleared the river of the blocks of ice, which had for some time impeded navigation. 8. FIRE IN GRAVEL-LANE. Just before one o'clock in the morning, a fire broke out in the house of a marine store-dealer, a Mrs. Parke, situated in Gravellane, Southwark, Southwark, The flames were first seen in the shop by the police, who raised an immediate alarm, but unfortunately not in time to allow all the inmates of the house (twenty-six in number) to escape, and a widow, named Margaret Sweeney, and two of her children perished in the flames, and another of her children soon afterwards died in Guy's Hospi tal from the injuries it received in being thrown from the window of an upper apartment by its unfortunate mother. Mrs. Parke and eleven children were dragged out into the street and saved. The fire communicated to the upper part of the dwelling with great rapidity, and the inmates endeavoured to retreat down stairs. Some effected their object, others were unable to do so, and threw themselves out of the windows, and Mrs. Sweeney and her chil dren, who occupied an apartment in the rear of the house on the second floor, were all destroyed. Engines were soon upon the spot, and by means of an extraordinary length of leather hose joined together, the firemen were enabled to check the spread of the flames, which were threatening the adjoining buildings; but the marine store-shop and dwelling-house were entirely consumed. The lodgers lost every thing they possessed. Many of the sufferers met severe injuries in escaping from the burning-house. A female named Ryan, who jumped out of a window, was taken to Guy's Hospital with a broken leg and a fractured arm. A glass-blower, named James Robinson, his wife, and two children occupied the front room on the first floor, and they had a very narrow escape. Robinson stated, that he was awoke at one o'clock by a noise underneath him, apparently the cries and moans of Mrs. Parke's children. He immediately jumped out of bed and opened the window, and then saw flames issuing from the shop. He aroused his wife, and snatched up one of his children. His wife took up the other in her arms, and they both rushed down stairs, ran along the passage, and escaped into the street. As soon as he had deposited his wife and children in a place of safety, he returned through the smoke to his room, with the intention of getting some of his property and assisting the other inmates. On reaching his apartment he discovered that the floor was on fire, and was compelled to retreat. He was nearly suffocated by the smoke, and the fire had actually scorched him. He rushed through the back room on the first floor and leaped through the window into the yard. The fall stunned him, and he was most severely bruised, but, recovering his senses, he saw Mrs. Sweeney, at the window of the second floor, overlooking the yard with a child in her arms. He managed with some difficulty to raise himself, and picked up a pillow, which he firmly believes Mrs. Sweeney had previously thrown out to throw the child upon. He raised the pillow in his arms, and called out "Throw your children out," and held his arms in a position to catch them. Mrs. Sweeney who appeared much terrified, replied, "I will, I will; I'll throw them all out-for God's sake save them." Just at that moment a female whom he afterwards ascertained to be Mary Ryan, threw herself out from the first floor window. She fell heavily upon him, and knocked him down. Mrs. Sweeney held her child in her arms until he rose, and then threw it from her into his arms, but he was so weak he could not hold it, and the child fell out of his arms on to the stones. He held out his arms to receive another, and saw Mrs. Sweeney leave the window, and heard her calling to her children. She appeared at the window again without the children, when the smoke overpowered her, and she fell over the window-ledge, with her arms stretched out in a supplicating attitude. There the poor creature remained until the flames reached her, and she was was burnt alive. He heard the little children running about the house screaming dreadfully, and calling out "mother, mother;" their cries were soon stifled by the |